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PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 




THE 



VALUE OF THE UNION. 



EEPXJBLI8HED FROM THB 



'CONTINENTAL MONTHLY' OF MAY AND JUNE, 1863. 



Sold in Aid of the Soldiers' Fund. 




NEW YORK : 
JOHN F. TROW, PUBLISHER, 50 GREENE STREET 

(between gkand and beoome.) 
1864. 



^ 




^^-^A / 



VALUE OF THE UNION. 
/ 



KEPUBLienED FKOM THE 



* CONTINEiNTAL MONTHLY' OF MAY AND JUNE, 1863. 



h 



Sold in Aid of the Soldiers' Fund. 



c 



NEW 1^ O E K : 
JOHN F. TROW, PUBLISHER, 50 GREENE STREET, 

(between geand and bhoome.) 
1864. 



PEICE, TWENTY CENTS. 









2-i i Ij 



THE VALUE OF THE UNION. 



We are engaged in a life-and-deatli 
struggle for our natioual existence — 
for the preservation of the Union, for 
these are synonymous. To succeed, we 
need an animating spirit that shall 
carry us through all obstacles ; that 
shall smile at repeated defeat ; that 
shall ever buoy us up with strong hope 
and confidence in the ultimate success 
of our efforts. Such a spirit cannot 
flow from a simple love of opjiosition, 
excited by the wicked bravado of our 
opponents ; nor from a desire to prove 
ourselves the stronger: neither can it 
flow from the mere wish to destroy 
slavery. None of these motives singly, 
nor all of them combined, are sufficient 
to sustain us in this hour of trial, or to 
carry us clear through to the desired 
goal. The only motive which can do 
this, and which, in the heart of every 
loyal man, should be of such large pro- 
portions as immensely to dwarf all 
lower ones, is one that can flow only 
from a clear comprehension of the 
value of the Union, coupled with a con- 
viction, arising out of this intelligent 
valuation, that the Union, being what 
it is^containing within itself untold, 
and yet undeveloped blessings to our- 
selves and to the human race at large — 
is nothing less than a most precious gift 
of God ; given into our charge, to be 
ours as long as we deserve its enjoy- 
ment by our individual and national 
adherence to truth and right ; a con- 
viction also, that our Union, from the 
very marked Providential circumstances 
attending its establishment, is in no 
small sense a divine work ; and hence, 
that we may rest in the sure hope that 
God will not permit His own work to 
be destroyed, except by our refusing to 
cooperate with Him in its preserva- 
tion. 

All our blessings, natural and spirit- 



ual, are enjoyed by us only in the de- 
gree of our free and voluntary coopera- 
tion with the intentions of the Divine 
Giver. No good thing is forced upon 
us, and nothing that we ought to have; 
is withheld if we put forth the power 
granted us to obtain it. The atmos- 
phere surrounds us, but the lungs must 
open and expand to receive it. The 
food is before us, but the mouth must 
open, and the hands convey it thither, 
or it is of no service. Light flows from 
the sun, but the eye must open to en- 
joy it. And so with the blessings 
which we enjoy in the Union ; we must 
use our active powers to profit by them ; 
and at this crisis we must not only act 
to enjoy them, but must strain every 
nerve to preserve them. The nation is 
now on its trial, to be tested, as to 
whether it adequately values the divine 
gift of the Union. If it does thus value 
it, it will use diligently and carefully 
all the abundant resources which lie 
around it and within it, like an atmos- 
phere—wealth, population, energy, in- 
telligence, mechanical ingenuity, scien- 
tific skill, and all the needed matcriil 
of warfare. It is rich in all this, far 
more so than the South. All this. Provi- 
dence lays at the feet of the nation. It 
can do no more. The nation, as one 
man, must now do its part, or continue 
to do as it has done ; it must cooper- 
ate, must put forth a determined %riU— 
a will tenfold more resolute, more fixed 
and immovable to preserve the Union, 
than is that of its enemies to destroy 
it. This will cannot exist without a 
clear, intellectual appreciation of the 
worth of the Union ; of its value as an 
agent, which, if rightly employed, will 
continue to develop increasing power 
to humanize and Christianize men, and 
to elevate, to broaden, and intensify 
human life and happiness more than 



572 



The Value of the Union. 



any form of political institution that 
the world h;is ever witnessed. 

Full of this couvietion, we shall then, 
individually and collectively, be re- 
solved that this noble continent, stretch- 
ing three thousand miles from ocean to 
ocean, and opened like a new world to 
man, just at an epoch when religious 
and political liberty, starting into life 
in Europe, might be transplanted into 
this virgin soil, where thus far they 
have developed into this fair repuljlic — 
we shall then be resolved that this 
broad, rich territory shall be forever 
devoted 

To man's develoi^ment — not to his 
debasement. 

To liberty and free order — not des- 
potism and forced order. 

To an ever-advancing civilization — 
not to a retrograding barbarism. 

To popular self-government — not to 
the rule of a slave-holding oli- 
garchy. 

To religion, education, and morality 
— not to irreligion, ignorance, and 
licentiousness. 

To educated and dignified labor — not 
to brutalized labor under the lash. 

To individual independence and 
equal rights — not to individual 
subjugation to caste. 

To peace — and not to border wars be- 
tween conflicting States. 

To unity, harmony, and national 
strength — not to disunity, civil dis- 
cord, and subjection to foreign 
powers. 

All these blessings on the one hand 
are guaranteed in the Union, and only 
there— all their oppo.site horrors are 
involved as inevitalMy and certainly in 
the Southern lunacy, resting on slavery 
and secession as its corner stones ! 
Madness most unparalleled ! 

We will look now at a singular and 
beautiful fact — for fact it is, account 
for it as we may. It is this : The 
course of civilization upon this globe 
has ai)parent!y followed the course of 
the sun. Sunlight and warmth travel 



from east to west. T!ie moral and in- 
tellectual illumination of the nations 
has travelled the same route. From 
central or farther Asia, it goes to As- 
syria, and successively to Egypt, to 
Greece — thence to Italy and Rome — 
then to western Europe, England, 
France, Spain. Prom thence it leaps 
the Atlantic. The Bible, church, and 
school house, with the Pilgrims and 
other colonics, scatter the primeval 
darkness and savagism from the At- 
lantic coast. Still ' westward the march 
of emi^ire takes its way ' to the Alle- 
ghanies, to the Mississippi ; thence, by 
another leap, across two thousand miles 
of continent, where it sparkles with a 
golden lustre on the queenly California, 
enthroned upon the far-off Pacific shore 
(yet by the miraculous telegraph with- 
in whispering distance). There the 
newest and highest civilization comes 
face to face with the oldest on the earth 
— hoary with ages ; greets it in China 
across the wide Pacific, and the circle 
of the globe is joined. 

Now the civilization inaugurated 
i:pon our continent, in these United 
States, may be said to be, indeed is, 
the result of all that have preceded it. 
It combines somewhat of the elements 
of all the civilizations that have been 
strung along the earth's eastern semi- 
circumference, besides others, peculiar 
to itself. And why should it not be 
considered as the bud and opening 
flower growing out of the summit of 
all the past, and for which the long 
ages have made toilsome preparation. 
Long time does it take for stem and 
leaves to unfold, but in the end comes 
the flower, and then the fruit. But 
here, in this bud of splendid i)romise, 
the American Union, lurks the foul 
worm of slavery, threatening to blast 
the fondest liopes of mankind by de- 
stroying this glorious augury of a ma- 
ture civilization, where man shall de- 
velop into the full earthly stature of a 
being created in the divine image. 
Shall it be ? Not if the North is faith- 
ful to God, to mankind, and to itself. 



The Value of the Union. 



573 



Let us take courage. The westward- 
travelling sunbeams have ever to op- 
pose the western darkness, but they 
conquer always. So American civiliza- 
tion, also, has its darkness and bar- 
baric elements to battle with, but they 
too, God willing, shall vanish before it. 

Why have we been forced into this 
desperate, unexpected conflict ? One 
reason may possibly be, that by it, we 
may be aroused to a living sense of the 
great value of our inheritance, the 
Union, when threatened with its loss. 
' Blessings brighten as they take their 
flight.' Beneflt's daily enjoyed, with 
hardly a care or eflbrt on our part, are 
not prized as they should be. When, 
however, we are threatened with their 
loss, we awaken from indifference. A 
new sense of their value springs up, 
and a severe contest for their preserva- 
tion stamps their true worth indelibly 
on the heart. Threaten to cut oft' the 
air a man breathes, the food and drink 
that sustains him, and you rouse all his 
energies into new life ; and he now 
prizes these common but unthought-of 
blessings as he never did before. And 
so it will be one eftect of this contest, 
to arouse us as a nation to see clearly 
our vantage ground in the world's 
progress, and to stir us up as indi- 
viduals, to lead higher and truer lives, 
each for his own and for his country's 
sake. And when this Southern insane 
wickedness is quelled, and the great 
American nation can rest and breathe 
freely once more, it will then calmly 
ponder the past, and survey the future. 
In the degree of its religion and virtue, 
and next of its intelligence and energy, 
it will, in the course of time, clearly 
perceive and wisely inaugurate a new 
social and industrial life, which will be 
as far in advance of the present system 
of free labor as the latter is itself in 
advance of slavery. What that is, can- 
not here be stated. It will, however, 
be but the inevitable result of agencies 
and influences now at work, and only 
interrupted and endangered by this 
pro-slavery rebellion. 



With these remarks, we enter upon 
our topic : ' Why is the Union j)rico- 
less ? ' 

There are two reasons, among others, 
why it is so, upon which we shall dwell 
at some lengtli. 

The lirst is involved in the great fact 
that such is man's nature as bestowed 
by the Creator, that only in the society 
of his fellows can that nature be devel- 
oped into all its grandeur, and thus be- 
stow and receive the utmost amount of 
luippiness. Tlie oltl adage, ' the more, 
the merrier,' might be truly amplified in 
many ways. When numbers are en- 
gaged in common pursuits, common 
interests, common views, common joys 
— each one zealous, earnest, life-giving 
and life-receiving — the happiness of the 
whole flows in upon each, and multi- 
plies it a thousandfold. 

Now if we look at history, keeping 
in mind the fact that the sole end of 
the Creator is the happiness of his crea- 
tures, and that this happiness is multi- 
plied in proportion to the number of 
those who can be brought into accord 
and concert of action (and action, too, 
as diversified as possible) — looking at 
history, we say, under the light of this 
fact, it would seem as if Providence, in 
the course of human events, was in the 
continual efibrt, so to speak, to bring 
mankind into ever closer, more har- 
monious, and more multiplied and di- 
verse relations ; ever striving to mass 
the human race more and more into 
larger and larger communities ; the 
diflerent portions of which should still 
retain all the freedom they were pre- 
pared for, or needed to enjoy, while at 
the same time, they were in close but 
free membership with the conuuon 
body and its central head. 

We say that this seems to be the aim 
of Providence ; while on the other 
hand, there is just as evidently to be 
seen the working of an opposing force, 
viz., human selfishness, human ig- 
norance, individual ambition, ever seek- 
ing its own at the expense of others. 



574 



The Value of the Union. 



A selfish, energetic, and ignorant spirit 
of indi\'idualism (as distinguished from 
an enlightened, large-minded, social in- 
di%'idualism, which only becomes more 
marked and healthily developed by 
wide social intercourse), has in all ages 
tended to split up society into smaller 
parts, animated by mutual rivalry, jeal- 
ousy, and hostility. When these antag- 
onisms have lieen carried to a certain 
length the evil cures itself, by the rise 
of a despotism, which, as the instru- 
ment in the hands of Providence, brings 
all these clashing communities under 
a strong government, that binds them 
over, as it were, to keep the peace. By 
this, leisure and opportunity are given 
for the cultivation of the arts, the 
sciences, and industries, which tend to 
hmnanize men, and lessen the restless 
war spirit. 

Thus the massing of many jjetty and 
warring tribes of barbarians into one 
large nation, and under a strong des- 
potic monarchy, without which they 
could neither have been brought to- 
gether nor kept together, is so much 
gained for human progress. 

After this has continued for a time, 
when certain changes, certain ameliora- 
tions have been effected in the intellec- 
tual, social, and moral character of the 
nation, from the cultivation of the arts 
of peace, it is then allowed to be 
broken up, as the period may have ar- 
rived for the infusion of new elements 
and agencies of social progress which 
shall place men upon a higher plane of 
national existence. It falls to pieces 
through its own corruption and degen- 
eracy, or by the invasion of stronger 
neighbors. It is swallowed up by the 
destroying force, and its people, its 
institutions, its ideas, its arts and 
sciences, its customs, laws, modes of 
life, or whatever el.se it may have elab- 
orated, become mingled with those of 
surrounding nations, and a new politi- 
cal and social structure, formed out of 
the old and the new elements recom- 
bincd anew and useless matter elimi- 
nated — stands forth in hi.story : a struc- 



ture tending still more than previous 
conditions to raise men in the scale of 
civilization — to bring them into closer 
relations — to enlarge and multiply their 
ideas — to quicken their moral and so- 
cial impulses — to rub off the harsh an- 
gles of a selfish, narrow-minded individ- 
ualism, and, in a word, to advance them 
yet more toward that degree of virtue 
and intelligence which is absolutely in- 
dispensable to the union of large masses 
of men into a nation, whose political 
system shall at once unite the utmost 
freedom for each individual with the 
most perfect general order also. 

For the establishment of such a gov- 
ernment we think the world has been 
carried through a long educational pro- 
cess ; for in such a government, men 
will find the. greatest earthly happiness, 
and also the greatest facilities and in- 
ducements to live in such a way as 
shall secure the happiness that lies be- 
yond. And we think that the course 
of events in history will show that such 
a method as that described has been 
jHirsued by Providence, gathering men 
from the isolation and warfare of petty 
and independent tribes, into large des- 
potisms, where the lower, rude, and 
selfish passions of wild men being held 
in restraint, some opportunity is given 
for i)eaceful pursuits and the develop- 
ment of a higher range of mental quali- 
ties — breaking these despotisms up 
again at certain periods, and massing 
their constituent elements into larger 
or differently constituted governments, 
with new agencies of progress added, 
according as human mental conditions 
and needs required. 

That those great ancient monarchies, 
as the Assyrian, Persian, etc., had this 
effect, cannot well be doubted. But in 
the rise and fall of the great Roman 
(Hupire, this ai^pcars very j^lainly. 
How many nations and small cora- 
munities — far and near — isolated, inde- 
l)endent, and more or less engaged in 
wars among themselves or in the con- 
stant apprehension of it — how many, 
wc say, of such communities were gath- 



The Value of the Union. 



575 



ered under the broad wings of the Ro- 
man eagle 1 From Spain and England 
on the west, to the borders of India on 
the east — from the Baltic on the north, 
to the deserts of Africa on the south — 
all were brought under the Roman 
sway ; were brought under a common 
tranquillity (such as it was), under a 
common government, common laws, a 
common civilization more or less. All 
these countries were raised from a low- 
er to a higher condition by their sub- 
jection to Roman domination. How 
far superior in England was the Roman 
civilization, its laws, manners, institu- 
tions, to the rude Anglican and Saxon 
life! 

Rome thus established a grand hu- 
manizing unity over all these different 
regions, which otherwise had remained 
divided, hostile, or isolated from each 
other. 

In the next place, through the in- 
strumentality of this Roman unity, 
Christianity was established with com- 
parative ease over the greater part of 
the then known world. This would 
perhaps have been very difficult if not 
impossible had these regions been oc- 
cupied by a multitude of independent, 
and most likely, warring sovereignties. 

Christianity thus widely planted, 
and firmly rooted upon this Roman 
civilization and by means of it, and 
this civilization, now perfected as far 
as it was capable of being, or standing 
in the way of further human progress, 
the empire fell to pieces, to make room 
for a new order of things, in which 
Christianity, the remains of Roman 
civilization, and the peculiar features 
of northern barbarian life, were the in- 
gredients. These elements, after num- 
berless combinations, dissolutions, and 
reconstructions, have resulted in the 
civilization of modem Europe. The 
progress toward this civilization has 
everywhere exhibited a constant ten- 
dency to larger and larger national uni- 
ties — parts coalescing into wholes, and 
these into yet larger units. Witness 
the reduction of the number of German 



Ijrmcipalitics, from one hundred or 
more to forty in the present day — the 
movement now on foot in Germany for 
a federal union among these forty — alsu 
the new Italian nationulity. These we 
mention but incidentally, not intending 
here to trace the steps of this advance. 

This progress toward unity has also 
been accompanied with a constant 
though slow advance in the principles 
of religious and political freedom. 

But now, out of this European civiliz- 
ation, the result itself of the breaking up 
of the Roman semi-pagan, semi-Christian 
empire, and the multiplied interming- 
lings, changes, and reconstructions of the 
Roman, the ecclesiastical, and northern 
barbarian elements — out of this Euro- 
pean civilization, with its movements to- 
ward large nationalities — its progress to- 
ward religious and political freedom, 
and toward the acknowledgment and 
recognition of human rights ; the substi- 
tution of constitutional monarchies for 
absolute, and the creation of represent- 
ative bodies from the people as part 
of the government — out of all this, 
there springs as the fruit of all the long 
turmoil, the wars, the blood and treas- 
ure, the groans and tears, the martyr- 
doms of countless human lives, that 
during these long ages have, apparent- 
ly in vain, been offered up in the cause 
of liberty, of order, of national peace, 
unity and freedom, of the right of man 
to the full and legitimate use of all his 
God-given faculties — there springs, we 
say, as the fruit, the result of all this 
suffering, our glorious American repub- 
lic ! our sacred — yes, our sacred Union ! 
The fairest home that man has ever 
raised for man ! To lay violent hands 
on which, should be deemed the black- 
est, most unpardonable sacrilege. It is 
the actualization of a dazzling vision, 
that may have often glowed in the 
imagination of many a patriot and 
statesman of olden times — which ho 
may have vainly struggled to realize in 
his own age and nation, and died at 
last, heart-broken, amid the carnage of 
civil strife. 



576 



The Value of the Union. 



Our republic, we repeat, is the fruit 
of European struggles. If Europe had 
not passed tlirough what she has, the 
United States would never have arisen. 
The principles of religious and political 
liberty sprang to birth in Europe, but 
there they have been of tardy growth, 
because surrounded and opposed by 
habits and institutions of early ages. 
They needed transplantation to a new 
and unoccupied soil, where they could 
enjoy the free air and sunshine, and not 
be overshadowed by anything else. 

Here then we have our American 
civilization, formed out of what was 
good in European, combined with 
much else that has had its origin upon 
our own shores — the result of free jirin- 
ciples allowed almost unobstructed 
play. 

Let us survey the many elements of 
unity which we possess. 

First in large measure, a common ori- 
gin, viz., from England — that country 
of Europe farthest advanced of any 
other in religion, in politics, in free- 
dom, and in science and industry. 

Next, a common birth, as it were, in 
the form of numerous colonies, from the 
mother country ; planted almost sim- 
ultaneously, it may be said ; pos- 
sessed of common charters, which dif- 
ered but slightly — containing systems 
of colonial administration, full of the 
spirit of popular rights and representa- 
tion. 

Next, a common language, a common 
literature, a common religion, and com- 
mon interests, that should bind us to- 
gether against all foes. 

Lastly, a common temtoi-y, washed 
by the two remote oceans — a territory, 
in the present advanced state of science 
and of improved modes of travel and 
of communication, without any mate- 
rial dividing lines or barriers ; but hav- 
ing, on the contrary, an immense river 
in the centre, stretching its arms a thou- 
Band miles on either side, as if on ])ur- 
pose to keep the vast region forcvi lone 
and united. 

Never was the birth of a nation so 



full of promise — so full of all the ele- 
ments of a prosperous growth. If any 
one event can be said to be, more than 
another, under the divine guidance, 
then, all the circumstances attending 
the colonization of these shores, and 
the formation of this Union, have been 
most minutely and marvellously provi- 
dential. ' Here at last,' we may con- 
ceive some superior being to exclaim, 
who from his higher sphere has 
watched vdth deep sympathy the weary 
earth-journey of the human race, ' here 
at last, after these long ages of disci- 
pline and suflFering, has a long desired 
goal been reached. Here a portion of 
the human family, having attained to 
such a degree of virtue and intelligence, 
combined with skill in political ar- 
rangements, and a commensurate knowl- 
edge of art, and science, and industrial 
pursuits — may be intrusted with liber- 
ty proportioned to their moral and in- 
tellectual advancement. Here they 
shall begin to live unitedly, more and 
more in accordance with the divine in- 
tentions than man has ever yet done. 
Millions on millions shall here be band- 
ed together into one vast, free, yet or- 
derly community, where each individ- 
ual shall enjoy all the liberty to which 
he is entitled liy his moral character, 
and possess all possible facilities for 
the full and healthy development of his 
entire nature. Here, under the com- 
bined influence of true religion, intelU- 
gence, and freedom — and these must go 
hand in hand — the millions composing 
this great nation must become ever 
more and more united, prosperous, and 
happy. 

This then, is the first reason why the 
Union is priceless — because in this 
Union, Providence appears to have 
reached an end, a goal, to which it has 
long been in the efibrt to conduct the 
human race, viz., the bringing a larger 
and more rapidly increasing population 
into a more free, united, and happy 
life, one more in accordance with hu- 
man wants, and with the measureless 



The Value of tlie Union. 



577 



divine benevolence, than has ever yet 
been brought about in the annals of 
mankind. 

We proceed now to consider the 
second reason why the Union is price- 
less. 

This reason lies in the method of the 
organization of this Government. 
What is this plan or method ? 
We reply that the immense value of 
the Union rests also upon the incontro- 
j^ vertible fact (perhaps not widely sus- 

pected, but evident enough when look- 
ed for) that the system of government 
of these United States, the mode in 
which the smaller and larger commu- 
nities are combined into the great 
whole, together with the working of 
all in concert, comes tlie nearest of any 
other political structure to the Creator\ 
method, of corribining parts into icholes 
throughout the universe. 

Wherever we behold a specimen of 
the divine creative skill, whether in the 
mineral, vegetable, animal, or human 
kingdoms ; whether it be a crystal, a 
tree, a bird, or beast, a man, or a solar 
system, in all these we observe one uni- 
versal method of grouping, common to 
all conditions. This method is that 
of grouping parts around centres, and 
several of such groups around larger 
J centres, upward and onward indeflnite- 

B ly ; while in living beings, according 

I to their complexity, each individual 

^ part, and each individual group of 

parts with its centre, is left free to inove 
within its own sphere, yet at the saine 
time is harmonized tcith the movements 
of its neighbors through the medium of 
the common centre. 

Every such work of the Creator is an 
E plurihus tmum, a one out of many — 
a unit composed of many diversified 
parts, exhibiting a marvellous unity, 
with an equally wonderful variety. 
Look at yonder tree, examine its parts, 
leaves, twigs, branches, trunk, all en- 
dowed with a common life. Yet each 
little individual leaf lives and moves 
freely upon its centre or twig, which 

VOL. III. — 37 



is a conmion centre for many leaves. 
Many little twigs in their turn, c;ioh 
fret! to move by itself within a certain 
limit, are ranged along their common 
centre, a branch. Many branches clus- 
ter around a large one, and all the 
largest branches in their turn cluster 
around the common trunk, or great cen- 
tre supporting the whole fabric. Each 
leaf and twig and branch contributes 
its share to the life of the whole tree, 
and is in turn supported by the gener- 
al life and circulating sap. 

All this is repeated with far greater 
fulness and complexity in the living 
animal, or in the human body. How 
numerous are the parts composing a 
single organ ! How many organs go to 
one system, how many systems, bony, 
muscular, fibrous, circulatory, nervous, 
combine to make up the entire body ! 
Then again, all the members of the 
body move, within a certain limit, in per- 
fect independence of all the rest. The 
finger can move without the hand, the 
hand can move without the arm, the 
forearm without the upper arm, the 
entire arm without any other limb ; and 
j^et all the parts of one limb, and all 
the limbs together, are harmonized in 
action by the central brain. 

So also in the solar system. The 
moons move around the planets ; the 
planets around the sun ; our group of 
suns around their magnetic axis, the 
milky way ; yet each of these heavenly 
bodies rolls freely in its own orbit. In 
all these instances we have the great 
problem solved, of reconciling liberty 
with order, liberty of the individual 
parts with perfect order in the whole. 

As far then as human governments 
imitate this divine method of organiza- 
tion seen in created objects, so far do 
they solve this problem in the sphere 
of political arrangements, making due 
allowance of course for the disturbing 
influence acting in man's own mental 
constitution, by reason of his fall from 
the innocence and holiness in which he 
he Mas created. It is just because this 
divine and universal method has been 



578 



The Value of the Union. 



unconsciously followed by tlie good 
and wise and immortal framers of the 
national Constitution, and also because 
the morality and uitelligence of the 
people were adapted to this wise politi- 
cal structure, that the American nation 
has prospered as it has, and become the 
cnvj' of the world. 

Is it asked in what consists this re- 
semblance ? "We rej)ly that it is in the 
grouping of 

Individuals into townships ; 

Of the townships into counties ; 

Of the counties into States ; 

Of the States into the national Union, 
with a central government. 

The township acts in township aifairs 
through its officers, who collectively 
compose its centre, and harmonize the 
actions of all the individuals of the 
township in all matters which concern 
that indi\ddual townsliip. Through 
their officers, the peoijle of the town- 
ship act freely together within the law- 
ful sphere of the township. The com- 
mon wants of the township are attend- 
ed to by the people through their 
officers, who compose the centre around 
which all township action revolves. 

A number of townships, having com- 
mon wants, are erected into a county. 
The county officers and county court 
form the harmonizing centre of this 
larger organization. 

A number of counties, having com- 
mon wants, are erected into a State, 
with a State government. This is the 
harmonizing centre, concentrating the 
efforts of as many counties, townships, 
and individuals as may be requisite to 
accomplish an object in any portion of 
the State, or in the whole of it. At 
ten days' notice by its Governor, Penn- 
sylvania sent near one hundred thou- 
sand men into the field. Without po- 
litical oganization this could never have 
been effected. What a power is here 
exhibited, and yet all emanating direct- 
ly from the people, without coercion 
of any kind, beyond respect for their 
own-made laws 1 The spectacle is truly 
grand. 



Finally, the States altogether have 
common wants, which only a central, 
national government can supply. (Oh 
the deep wickedness or trebly intensi- 
fied insanity of secession ! Language 
fails to express the utter madness of 
the rebel leaders : the recklessness of 
a suicide is nothing in comparison ; for 
here are eight millions of men intent 
upon their own destruction ; fighting the. 
North like fiends, because it would res- 
cue them from themselves, and save both 
North and South from a common abyss 
of ruin !) The national government 
alone is strong at home and respected 
abroad. It alone can concentrate the 
energies and resources of thirty-four 
States, and of thii-ty-oue millions of 
people, into any one or many modes of 
activity which the nation may judge 
best for its own interest. It is thus re- 
sistless. No single foreign power in 
the world nor any probable or possible 
alliance of foreign powers could hope 
to effect anything, with an army of 
three or four millions of soldiers that 
the entire republic could raise and keep 
in the field. Thus in union is our 
strength at home, for it gives the whole 
power and resources of the nation to 
works of common utility and necessity. 
Such are the maintenance of the army 
and navy, the building and support of 
forts, lighthouses, and customhouses, 
collection of the revenue, the keeping 
rivers and harbors navigable, the estab- 
lishment of a general post office, and 
its countless ramifying branches, con- 
structing immense public works, like 
the Pacific railroad, providing for ex- 
tensive coast surveys, and the like. 
Then in a different department, har- 
monizing the action of States by na- 
tional laws, by the Supreme Court, and 
by the national courts in each State, 
dispensing an even justice throughout 
the entire Union, by deciding appeals 
from State and county courts. Each 
State enjoys the benefits of these na- 
tional functions, with the least jjossible 
cost to itself; and were there no na- 
tional government, each State would 



The Value of the Union. 



57U 



have to provide itself ■with all these 
things, or what proportion of them it 
required, at a very heavy outlay of its 
own more limited resource:^, and would 
be obliged to double, perhaps quad- 
ruple its taxes. Each State requires 
the means of its own defence ; and as 
they would all be independent sover- 
eignties, each would be compelled, like 
the European nations, to keep its own 
standing army, and watch its neighbors 
closely, and be ready to bristle up on 
the least sign of aggression on their 
part. The soldiers of each standing 
army would be, as in Europe, so much 
power withdrawn from jjroductive in- 
dustry, kept in idleness, and supported 
by those who were left free to labor. 
Each State requires a postal system; 
those on the seaboard require tariffs, a 
navy, etc., and in the absence of a na- 
tional government we can hardly form 
an idea of the endless disputes that 
would ensue from these and a thousand 
other sources. For this reason the old 
federation of the States was an experi- 
ence of inexpressible value. It settled 
forever, in the minds of all communi- 
ties who are governed by cool common 
sense and not mad passion, the utter 
impracticability (for efficient coripera- 
tion, and peaceful union) of a mere 
league or confederacy among sovereign 
and independent States. While the 
seven years' war of independence last- 
ed, it managed to hold the States to- 
gether; but when peace was restored 
the evils of the league were so glaring, 
and the dangers in the future so immi- 
nent, that the good sense of the people 
saved the young nation in time, by 
sheltering it under that broad, strong 
roof, the present national Constitution. 
Thus the individual States legislate and 
act for themselves in all that concerns 
themselves alone. But in that which 
concerns themselves in connection and 
in common with other States, and 
where, if each State were absolutely in- 
dependent, such State action would 
come into conflict with the wants or 
rights of other States, and also be a 



great cost to the single State — all such 
common and general matters arc accom- 
l)lished with uniformity and harmony 
l)y all the States collectively thnnigh 
the general or central government. 

But farther. — This central govern- 
ment itself, like the nation which it 
serves, is a compound body ; a unit 
composed of parts, each of which in 
its own sphere is independent, yet be- 
yond that sphere is limited by the func- 
tions of the other parts. This govern- 
ment is a triple compound, and consists 
of the legislative, the judicial, and the 
executive departments. 

The legislative, or Congress, declares 
the will of the nation. 

The judicial or judging department 
decides and declares the proper ways and 
means, the how, the when, the persons 
and conditions, according to which this 
national will is to be carried out — and 

The executive department is tlie 
arm and hand that does the carrying 
out; that performs by its proclama- 
tions and by its civil and military 
agents, what the Congress and judicial 
departments have willed and constitu- 
tionally decided shall be done. 

Thus is perceived a beautiful anal- 
ogy between these three departments 
acting separately and yet in concert 
— and the will, the intellect, and the 
bodily powers of the individual man. 
A man's will is very different and dis- 
tinct from his intellect or reasoning 
faculty ; and both will and intellect are 
widely distinct from the bodily powers. 
Not only are those three distinct and 
totally different elements in man's na- 
ture, but only in the degree that they 
remain distinct, and that they are duly 
balanced against each other, and that 
they all act in concert— only in this de- 
gree is the life of the individual self- 
poised, harmonious, and free. 

And precisely the same is true of 
these three functions of government. 
It is essential to a free republican state 
that these functions shouUl remain dis- 
tinct, and administered liy different 
bodies. When they are all merged into 



580 



Tlie Value of the Union. 



each other, and vested iu a single indi- 
vidual or a single body of individuals, 
the government is then a despotism. 
The very essence of what we under- 
stand by despotism, is this massing, 
this fusing together of elements that 
can properly and justly live and act 
only when each is at liberty, in freedom 
to be itself, in order that it may per- 
form its own, its peculiar and appropri- 
ate function, iu harmonious connection 
with others performmg theirs. Despot- 
ism is the binding, compressing, sufib- 
cating of individual life ; first of the 
three fmictions of government, which 
should always be kept separate, and 
next, as a natural and inevitable conse- 
quence, of those who come under that 
solidified administration. The nation 
governed by a depotism must be mould- 
ed after the same pattern ; it must ne- 
cessarily have the variety and freedom 
of its many constituent parts destroyed, 
and be massed and melted together 
into a homogeneous and indiscriminate 
whole ; only permeated in all directions 
by the channels conveying the will of 
the despotic head. 

Thus the province of free government 
is not to be conceived of as that of re- 
straining, repressing, punishing. This 
is only its negative function. Its posi- 
tive ofiice is the very opposite, and is 
truly a most exalted one. And this is, 
to remove every Imrricr to the freest 
outflow of human energies. It is to 
give an open field and the widest 
scope for the play of every human fac- 
ulty consistent with right. Government 
does this, by estal>lisliing order among 
multitudes teeming with life and activ- 
ity — each seeking, in his own way, the 
broadest vent for his God-given ener- 
gies. These human energies are given 
to men for the very purj^ose that they 
may flow forth in a thousand modes of 
activity and industrj', and that, thus, 
men may mutually impart an exalted 
happiness upon each other. These 
energies are to l)c repressed only when 
they are wrong, when they take a 
wrong direction, when they conflict 



with the welfare of the community. 
When these energies, these human im- 
pulses to act, are right, when they aim 
at useful results, then they must have 
every facility, every possible channel 
opened to their outflow. And the very 
first and most essential condition of this 
free outflow of life among multitudes 
is, that there be order among them — 
that there be some system, some method- 
ical arrangement whereby concert and 
unity of action may be eft'ected among 
this diversified life. Witliout this order 
— without systems or common methods 
of action in the thousand afiairs which 
concern every community, it is evident 
that there must be fZisorder, confusion, 
and clashing. The activity of each in- 
dividual, and of each class of individu- 
als, will come into collision, and be re- 
pressed by the like activity of others. 
It is utterly impossible, in a community 
where there is no order, no mutually 
understood arrangement of relations, 
duties, and pursuits ; in other words, 
where there is no government ; it is im- 
l^ossible, under such conditions, for in- 
dividuals, if even of the best intentions, 
to live and do as they wish. For many 
wills must come into conflict, unless 
they can be harmonized, unless they 
have a mutual understanding and con- 
sent among each other that there shall 
be common and well-defined methods 
of procedure, under the countless cir- 
cumstances in which men mu^t act to- 
gether, or not act at all. 

Now, it is the true function of gov- 
ernment to establish these common or 
general modes of procedure, termed 
laws, among masses, and to punish de- 
partures from them. Government is 
thus the great social harmonizer of 
these otherwise necessarily conflicting 
and mutually interfering human ener- 
gies. 

Government coordinates, harmonizes, 
concentrates the efforts of multitudes. 
It does this by establishing and main- 
taining o/v/er, an orderly arrangement of 
human activities— anangements, meth- 
ods of procedure, which are adapted to 



The Value of the Uiiioii. 



)81 



the wants of the community, and into 
which men's activities flow freely and 
spontaneously, and without ct)mi)ul.sion 
(except in the case of violators of law), 
because of their adai)tati()n to the pub- 
lic wants. 

But now, what constitutes order ? 
What is its essential nature ? 

The answer is, that order is the har- 
monious relation of parts in a whole ; 
and parts can have no orderly, that is, 
symmetrical and harmonious, relation 
to each other, except through their re- 
lation to a common centre. 

Order is the sw&ordination of things, 
of things lower to something that is 
higher ; and si^ordination is the ordi- 
nation or ordering of parts under some- 
thing that is above — something to 
which the rest must cowform, that is, 
must form themselves or be formed 
with it, in harmony with it, if order is 
to result. 

This something is thus, of course, 
that which is central — the chief ele- 
ment in the group ; that which is the 
most prominent feature, and which 
gives character to all subordinate 
parts. 

It is thus clearly evident that the 
very essence of government, of order, 
of harmony, of subordination, is the 
grouping of individual parts around 
centres ; of these compound units as 
larger individuals, arouiffl some higher 
centre again, and so on, until a limit is 
prescribed by the very nature of the 
thing thus organized into an ascending 
series of compounds. 

This method of grouping and organ- 
izing parts into wholes, is, as we have 
already seen, the divine method ; an.d, 
of course, being such, as has also been 
said, it is seen in every created object — 
in minerals, plants, animals, and in the 
systems of suns and planets. 

It is the method of man's bodily or- 
ganization, and much more, if possible, 
is it the method of his mental organiza- 
tion. Man's mind consists of powers 
of affection and thought. His affec- 
tions, loves, desires, or whatever they 



may be termed, all group themselves 

arounil some leading motive, some rul- 
ing passion, which is central for a part 
or the whole of a lifetime. All minor 
motives and ends of action are subordi- 
nate, and only subservient as a means 
to satisfy the central, dominant pas-sion. 
They revolve around it, like satellites 
around their primary, or like planetd 
around their sun. 

His thoughts, likewise — the method 
of his intellectual operations, obey the 
same law. In every subject which he 
investigates, he marshals a multitude 
of facts around central principles or 
conclusions. He shuts them up under 
a general, chief, leading fact or law. A 
number of conclusions, again, are mar- 
shalled around one still more general 
and comprehensive, and thus he mounts 
up into the highest and most universal 
principles. All the knowledge stored 
away in his mind is thus organized, al- 
most without his consciousness, into 
groups of lower and higher facts and 
details, ranged under or around their 
central principles. 

The closer and more symmetrical is 
this grouping of i)articulars and gene- 
rals in the intellect, or, rather, the 
greater the power thus to arrange them, 
the more logical and compactly reason- 
ing is that mind. The looser and less 
connected is this grouping, the less 
logical is the mind ; and when the 
proper connection fails to be made be- 
tween particulars and generals, be- 
tween facts and their principles, or 
between parts and their centre, then 
the mind is in an idiotic or insane con- 
dition. 

Now, man's mental movements, being 
thus themselves obedient to this great 
order-evolving method, then, of course, 
when he applies his fiicultics to investi- 
gate the objects and phenomena of the 
outer world, he classifies, arranges, and 
disposes them strictly after the same 
method, because he cannot help doing 
so. The naturalist studies minerals, 
plants, animals— and each kingdom, at 
his bidding, marshals itself into order 



5S2 



The Value of the Union. 



before him. Each resolves its otherwise 
confused hosts into groups and series of 
groups, each with its ovm centre and 
leading type. The animal kingdom 
has its sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, 
families, and species. Botanists speak 
of divisions, classes, orders, genera, and 
species, &c., species being the fii'st as- 
semblage of individuals. 

It is, therefore, seen that, by the very 
necessity of the case, when men them- 
selves are to be massed into communities 
and nations, they come inevitably under 
the same universal method of organiza- 
tion. Whether the government be free, 
or whether it be despotic, it must, in 
either case, be organized, and organized 
according to this universal method. It 
must consist of parts with their centres, 
compounded into wholes, and of these 
compound units formed into still larger 
ones ; until the entire nation, as a grand 
whole, revolves upon a ccntfal pivot, or 
national government. 

But here there presents itself a vast 
distinction between despotic and free 
governments — a distinction which arises 
out of the different relations sustained, 
in these respective modes of administra- 
tion, between the government and the 
people — between the centre and the 
subordinate parts. "What is this diifer- 
ence? 

If we look around through nature, 
we shall find that aU organized beings, 
that is, beings composed of diiaFerent 
parts or organs, all aiding, in their sev- 
eral ways, to the performance of a com- 
mon function, or a number of harmonized 
functions — in such an organized struc- 
ture, whether it be a plant, an animal, 
the hmnan body, or even the globe it- 
self, we shall find two reciprocal move- 
ments — one from the centre, outward, 
and another from without, inward, or 
toward the centre ; and further, that 
the integrity of the life of the indivi- 
dual depends upon the harmonious re- 
lation or balance between these two 
opposite inovcmcnts. 

The individual man, for instance, is 
a centre of active energies that are ever 



radiating from himself toward men and 
things around him ; and he receives from 
them, in return, countless impressions 
and various materials for supporting 
his own life. What is thus true of the 
man himself, is also true of the organs 
and systems of organs of which his 
body is composed. The nervous system 
exhibits nerves with double strands; 
one set (the motor fibres) conveying 
nervous force from the centre as motor 
power to the limbs ; the other, convey- 
ing sensations to the centre, from with- 
out. 

The heart, again, the centre of the 
circulating system, sends forth its crim- 
son tide to the farthest circumference, 
and receives it back as venous blood — 
to send it forth afresh when purified in 
the lungs. 

The jjlant has its ascending and de- 
scending sap ; it drinks in the ak and 
sunshine, and gives these forth again in 
fragrance and fruit. The very globe 
receives its life from the sun — and radi- 
ates back, forces into space. 

Human governments — human politi- 
cal and social organizations, are no ex- 
ceptions to this general law. Every 
government, even the most despotic, 
while it rules a nation with a rod of 
iron, dejoends for its life upon the peo- 
ple whom it oppresses. While the cen- 
tral head radiates its despotic will 
through its pliant subordinates, down 
through all ranks and classes of the 
community, it receives from them the 
means of its own preservation. 

A free government likewise radiates 
authority from the central head, and 
also depends for its life on the people 
whom it governs. What is the point 
of difierence between them ? 

It is simply this : 

There are two elements of power in 
a nation. 

One is moral, %az., the free-will and 
consent of the people. 

The other is physical, viz., military 
service, and revenue from taxation. 

The free consent of the people is the 
aoul of the national strength. 



The Value of the Union. 



68S 



The treasure and the armies wliich 
they furnish, constitute the liody. 

For the highest efficiency, soul and 
body must act as one, whether in the 
individual or in the collective man. 
They must not be separated. Hence 
the perfect right of men who would be 
free to refuse to be taxed by govern- 
ment without being represented — Avith- 
out having a voice in its nuin;igenient. 
The material support must not be given 
without the moral — that is one form of 
slavery. 

But of these two elements of national 
strength, a despotism, a government of 
force, possesses and commands only the 
physical or material, viz., military ser- 
vice and revenue. It controls only the 
locly of the national powers. Not rest- 
ing upon the broad basis of the free 
choice and consent of the people, it is 
like a master who can force the body 
of another to do his bidding, while the 
spirit is in concealed rebellion. Such a 
government, in proportion as it severs 
this national soul from the body, is 
weak through constant liability to 
overthrow, from any chance failure of 
its material props. 

A free government, on the other hand, 
possesses both the elements of strength. 
It rests upon the free will and aftection 
of the people, as well as upon the abun- 
dant material support which they must 
ever yield to a government of their own 
creation, and which exists solely for their 
own use and benefit. Such a government 
is capable and strong in exact propor- 
tion to the virtue and intelligence of 
the masses from whom it emanates. 

Thus it is seen that a despotism dif- 
fers from a free government as to the 
reciprocal action that takes place be- 
tween the people and the government. 
In a despotism, all authority flows only 
in one direction, viz., from the central 
head down to the different ranks of 
subordinate officers, and through these 
numerous channels it reaches all classes 
of the people. But there is no returning 
stream of authority from the people to 
the government, from the parts to the 



centre. The only return flow ia that of 
military service and revenue. 

But a free government returns to the 
people all that it receives from them. 
From the masses there converges, 
through a thousand channels, to the 
central government, both the elements 
of national strength, viz., authority to 
act, and the means of carrying out tliis 
authoritj', that is, money and military 
service — the body, of which tlie popuhir 
will and authority is the soul. The 
people declare their will that such and 
such individuals shall be clothed with, 
and represent their united power, and 
act for them in this representative ca- 
pacity. The persons thus chosen, and 
who constitute the government or cen- 
tral head, with its suliordinate agencies, 
declare from this central position of 
authority with which they have been 
invested by the people, that such and 
such things are necessary for the wel- 
fare and orderly activity of the people, 
and in the name, and with the coopera- 
tion of the people, they will to carry 
these measures out. 

Thus life, energy, power, from the 
people, flow from all points to the gov- 
ernment, to the centre ; and from the 
government it flows back again to the 
people as order, as the force that ar- 
ranges, methodizes, harmonizes, and 
regulates the outflow of the popular 
energies in all the departments of hu 
man activity. It clears the channels of 
national industry of all obstacles. By 
its legislative, judicial, and executive 
functions, it establishes, on the one 
hand, common methods of action among 
multitudes having common interests 
and aims, and thus obviates clashing 
and confusion ; and, on tlie other, it 
punishes those who would interfere 
■n-ith and obstruct or destroy this order. 

The government is the concentrated 
will and intelligence of tlie people, di- 
rected to the wise guidance of the na- 
tional life — directed to the harmonizing 
of the diversified activity and industry 
of the nation, to the opening of all 
possible channels for that activity, and 



684 



The Value of the Union. 



to the removal of everything that would 
obstruct and counteract the nation's ut- 
most development and progress. 

In this way, a free government ex- 
hibits, as far as human imperfection 
admits, the union of the two great 
prmciples, liherty and order. The peo- 
IjIc are free to think, talk, W'rite, and 
act as they see fit ; but since there can 
be no liberty, but only license, or law- 
lessness, without order — without bene- 
ficent methods, symmetrical forms and 
arrangements, in ichich that liberty can 
be enjoyed by individuals and commu- 
nities, without conflicting with other 
individuals and communities, i:)arts of 
the same free whole — therefore govern- 
ment is created by the people to pre- 
scribe and maintain this order, essential 
to this common liberty ; an order which 
is thejhnn, or forms, under which both 
individuals and communities shall act, 
singly or in concert, in the countless 
relations in which the members of the 
same community or nation come into 
contact with each other. 

Now, in the United States, the chart 
of this orderly and symmetrical net- 
work of political arrangements for the 
free movement among each other of 
the individuals in the township, of the 
townships in the county, of the coun- 
ties in the State, and of the States in 
the Union — and within the protecting 
lines of which political arrangements, 
the people are enabled to pursue their 
industrial avocations without mutual 
interference and collision, and to attend 
in peace and security to all the employ- 
ments that tend to elevate, refine, and 
freely develop the individual man (for 
government is only and solely a means 
to this great end) — the chart, we say, of 
all tliese orderly arrangements, is our 
immortal national Constitution, togeth- 
er with the State constitutions that 
cluster around it, as their centre, axis, 
and support. 

Tlirough each State constitution, the 
national and central one sends down an 
iron arm, clasping them all by a firm 
bond to itself and to each other. And 



in each, the grasp of this arm is riveted 
and double riveted, above and below, 
by these two comprehensive, unmis- 
takable articles, without which the 
others had else been valueless ; and for 
which the framers of this great instru- 
ment are entitled to our lasting grati- 
tude and admiration. 

The articles are these, viz. : Ai't. 6th, 
sec. 2d : ' This Constitution, and the 
laws of the United States which shall 
be made in pursuance thereof . . . sJmll 
he the supreme law of the land . . . any- 
thing in the constitution or laws of any 
State to the contrary notwithstanding.' 

And art. 4th, sec. 4th : ' The United 
States shall guarantee to every State in 
the Union a repuUiean form of govern- 
ment, and shaU protect each of them 
against invasion. . . .' 

The first of these admits of no separ- 
ation or secession. The second pre- 
serves everywhere that form of govern- 
ment under which alone the fullest pol- 
itical freedom can be enjoyed. In fight- 
ing, then, for the Constitution, we fight 
for an undivided Union on the one 
hand, and, on the other, for a Union 
that guarantees to each member of it 
that form of government which secures 
the greatest liberty to those w^ho live 
under it. May we not, we say again, 
rest in an all but certain hope that the 
Divine Being will see fit to preserve His 
own work ? For such, though accom- 
plished through human agency, we feel 
constrained to believe, have been this 
Union and its remarkable constitu- 
tion. 

We have regarded the Union as the 
cuhiiination of a long series of endeav- 
ors, so to call them, on the part of 
Providence, to bring men from a social 
condition characterized by the multi- 
plicity, diversity, separation, antagon- 
ism, and hostility of independent, war- 
ring, petty states, into that larger, higher 
form of political and social life, that shall 
combine in itself the three conditions of 
unity — variety in unity, and of the ut- 
most li])crty with order — as the soul and 
life of the political body. And that it has 



The Value of' the Union. 



135 



also been the aim of Providence, m the 
formation of this Union, to accomplish 
the above object on as large a scale as 
possible, in the present moral and intel- 
lectual condition of the race. 

Can we be far wrong in such a view ? 
Think of our republic embracing in its 
wide extent, one, two, three, or more 
hundred millions of human beings, all 
in political union, enjoying the largest 
liberty possible in the present life, as 
well as the ever-increasing influence 
and light of religion, science, and edu- 
cation, giving augmented power to pre- 
serve and rightly use that liljerty. Ex- 
tent of territory in the present age, is 
no bar to the union of very distant re- 
gions. When the telegraph, that mod- 
ern miracle, brings the shores of the 
Pacific within three hours' time of the 
Atlantic seaboard — when railroads con- 
tract States into counties, and counties 
into the dimensions of an average farm, 
as to the time taken to traverse them — 
when spaces are thus brought into the 
closest union, it is but the counterpart 
and prophecy of the close moral and 
industrial union of the people who in- 
habit the spaces. When slavery, that 
relic of barbarism, that demon of dark- 
ness and discord, is destroyed, we can 
conceive of nothing that shall possess 
like power to sunder one section of the 
Union from another — of notliing that 
shall not be within the power of the 
people to settle by rational discussion 
or amicable arbitration. No ! Slavery 
once destroyed, an unimagiued Future 
dawns upon the republic. The South- 
ern rebellion, and the utterly unavoid- 
able civil war thence arising — as these 
are the two instrumentalities by which 
slavery will be cut clean away from the 
vitals of the nation, and the Union left 
untrammelled, to follow its great destiny 
— these twin events, we say, will, in after 
ages, be looked back upon as blessings 
in disguise — as the knife of the surgeon, 
that gives the patient a new lease of a 
long, prosperous, and happy life. 

We have contemplated the Union, and 



seen something of its matchless .symme- 
try, beauty, and indefinite cupabilitica, 
ever unfolding, to promote human wel- 
fare, through its unity with variety, iU* 
liberty with order, its freedom of actiurt 
of each jjart in its own sphere, coexist- 
ing with the harmonious working of all 
together as one grand whole — all of 
which arises, as was said, from the un- 
conscious modelling (on the part of 
its authors) of our political structure 
upon the Divine and universal plan of 
organization in mineral, in plant, in 
animal, in the planetary systems, and, 
above all, in man himself, body and 
mind. 

We saw that the method of this or- 
ganization was the grouping of indi- 
vidual parts into wholes around a cen- 
tre ; of many such compound units 
around a yet higher centre, and so on, 
indefinitely, onward and upward. That 
by such an organization, individual 
freedom was secured to each part, 
within a certain limit, wide enough for 
all its wants, and yet perfectly subordi- 
nated to the freedom and order of all 
the parts collectively, revolving or act- 
ing freely around the common centre 
and head. We saw that in the Divine 
creations — in all the objects of the three 
kingdoms of nature, the two great prin- 
ciples of liberty and order were thns 
perfectly reconciled and harmonizeci 
(true order being only the forin under 
which true Uhcrti/ appears, or can ap- 
pear) ; and, further, that in proportion 
as human afiairs and institutions obcj 
the same law, or, rather, in proportion 
as men individually and collectively 
advance in virtue and mtelligencc, do 
they unconsciously, and more or leas 
spontaneously, come into this Divine 
order, both in the regulation of person- 
al motive and conduct, and in outward 
political and social matters. 

Hence, as has already been stated, 
the near approach to this method in 
the political organization of the United 
States was the result of an amount of 
moral and intellectual culture, first in 
the colonies, and afterward in the con- 



586 



The Value of the Union. 



trivers and adopters of our political ply the same method of organization to 
framework, without which it could the less general affairs of industrial and 
never have been formed ; and in the social life. Now, all this Is not fancy ; 
degree that this mental condition is human progress in the direction in- 
maintained and advanced yet more and dicated, can be scientifically demon- 
more, will the citizens of the Union ap- strated 



THE VALUE OF THE UNION. 



Having taken a hasty survey, in our 
first number, of the value and progress 
of the Union, let us now, turning our 
gaze to the opposite quarter, consider 
the pro-slavery rebellion and its tend- 
encies, and mark the contrast. 

We have seen, in glancing along the 
past, that while a benevolent Provi- 
dence has evidently been in the con- 
stant endeavor to lead mankind on- 
ward and upward to a higher, more 
united, and happier life, even on this 
earth — this divine effort has always 
encountered great opposition from hu- 
man selfishness and ignorance. 

We have also observed, that never- 
theless, through the ages-long external 
discipline of incessant political revolu- 
tions and changes, and also by the in- 
ternal influences of such religious ideas 
as men could, from time to time, re- 
ceive, appreciate, and profit by, that 
through all this they have at length 
been brought to that religious, politi- 
cal, intellectual, social, and industrial 
condition which constituted the civiliz- 
ation of Europe some two and a half 
centuries since ; and which was, taken 
all in all, far in advance of any previous 
condition. 

Under these circumstances, the period 
VOL. in. — 41 



was ripe for the germs of a religiooa 
and political liberty to start into being 
or to be quickened into fresh life, with 
a far better prospect of final develop- 
ment than they could have had at an 
earlier epoch. Born thus anew in Eu- 
rope, they were transplanted to the 
shores of the new world. The results 
of their comparatively unrestricted 
growth are seen in the establishment 
and marvellous expansion of the re- 
public. 

Groat, however, as these results have 
been, the fact is so plain that he who 
runs may read, that they would have 
been vastly greater but for a malignant 
influence which has met the elements 
of progress, even on these shores. Dis- 
engaged from the opposing influences 
which surrounded them in Europe — 
from the spirit of absolutism, of heredi- 
tary aristocracy, of ecclesiastical des- 
potism, from the habits, the customs, 
the institutions of earlier times, more 
or less rigid, unyielding on that ac- 
count, and hard to change by the new 
forces, disengaged from these hamper- 
ing influences, and planted on the 
shores of America — these elements of 
progress, so retarded even up to the 
present moment in Europe, found them- 
selves most unexpectedly side by side 



The Value of the Umon. 



587 



with an outbiith of human selfishness 
in its pure and most undisguised form. 
This was not the spirit of absohitism, 
or of hereditary aristocracy, nor of ec- 
clesiastical and priestly domination. 
All of these, which have so conspicu- 
ously figured in Europe, have perhaps 
done more at certain periods for the 
advancement of civilization, by their 
restraining, educating influence, than 
they have done harm at others, when 
less needed. All of these institutions 
arose naturally out of the circumstances, 
the character, and wants of men, at the 
time, and have been of essential service 
in their day. But the great antagonist 
which free princijjles encountered on 
American soil ; which was planted 
alongside of the tree of liberty ; whicli 
grew with its growth, and strengthened 
with its strength ; which, like a noxious 
parasitic vine, wound its insidious coils 
around the trunk that supported it — 
binding its expanding branches, rooted 
in its tissues, and living on its vital 
fluids ; — this insidious enemy was sla- 
very — a thoroughly undisguised mani- 
festation of human selfishness and 
greed ; without a single redeeming 
trait — simply an unmitigated evil : a 
two-edged weapon, cutting and maim- 
ing both ways, up and down — the mas- 
ter perhaps even more than the slave ; 
a huge evil committed, reacting in evil, 
in the exact degree of its hugeness and 
momentum. Yes! this great antago- 
nist was slavery — an institution long 
thrown out of European life ; a relic of 
the lowest barbarism and savagism, the 
very antipodes of freedom, and flourish- 
ing best only in the rudest forms of so- 
ciety ; but now rearing its hideous vis- 
age in the midst of principles, forms, 
and institutions the most free and ad- 
vanced of any that the world has ever 
witnessed. 

In the presence of this great fact, one 
is led to exclaim : ' How strange ! ' 
How monstrous an anomaly ! What 
singular fatality has brought two such 
irreconcilable opposites together? It 
is as if two individuals, deadly foes, 



bhould by a mysterious chance, encoun- 
ter each other unexpectedly on some 
wide, dreary waste of the Arctic soli- 
tudes. Whither no other souls of iho 
earth's teeming millions come, thither 
thtse two alone, of all tlie world beside, 
are, as if helplessly impelkd, to settle 
their quarrel by the death of one or the 
other. Thus singular and inexplicable 
does it at first sight seem — this juxta- 
position of freedom and slavery on the 
shores of the new world. 

On second thoughts, liowcvcr, we 
shall find this apparent singularity and 
mystery to disappear. We are sur- 
prised only because we see a fomiliar 
fact under a new aspect, and do not at 
once recognize it. What wc see before 
us in this great event is only an under- 
lying fact of every individual's ^ewowzi 
experience, expanded into the gigantic 
proportions of a natioii's experience. 
In every child of Adam are the seeds 
of good and of evil. Side by side they 
lie together in the same soil ; they are 
nourished and developed together; 
they become more and more marked 
and individualized with advancing 
years, swaying the child and the youth, 
hither and thither, according as one or 
the other prevails ; until at some period 
in the full rationality of riper age comes 
the deadly contest between the power 
of darkness and the power of light — 
one or the other conquers ; the man's 
character is fixed ; and he travels along 
the path he has chosen, upward or 
downward. 

So it is now with the great collective 
individual, the American republic. So 
it is and has been with every other na- 
tion. The powers of good and evil 
contend no less in communities and 
nations than in the individuals who 
compose them ; and, according as one 
or the other influence prevails in rulers 
or in ruled, have human civilization 
and human welfare been advanced or 
retarded. 

In the American Union, the contrast 
has been more marked, more vivid, and 
of greater extent than the world hag 



5S8 



The Value of the Uidon. 



ever seen, because of the higher, freer, 
more humane character of our institu- 
tions, and the extent of region which 
they cover. The brighter the sunshine, 
the darker the shadow ; the higher the 
good to be enjoyed, the darker, more 
deplorable is the evil which is the 
inverse and oj^posite of that good. 
Hence, with a knowledge of this prev- 
alent fact of fallen human nature, and 
also of the fact that nations are but in- 
dividuals repeated — one might almost 
have foreseen that if institutions, more 
free and enlightened than had ever be- 
fore blessed a people, were to arise upon 
any region of the globe — something 
proportionately hideous and repulsive 
in the other direction would be seen to 
start up alongside of them, and seek 
their destruction. 

Is this so strange then ? It is only 
in agreement with the great truth, that 
the best men endure the strongest temp- 
tations. He who was sinless endured 
and overcame what no mere mortal 
could have borne for an instant. So 
the highest truths have ever encoun- 
tered the most violent opposition. The 
most salutary reforms have had to strug- 
gle the hardest to obtain a footing ; in 
a word, the higher and holier the heav- 
en from whence blessings descend to 
earth, the deeper and more malignant 
is the hell that rises in opposition. 
With the truly-sought aid of Him, 
however, who alone has all power in 
heaven, earth, and hell, victory is cer- 
tain to be achieved in national no less 
than in individual trials. 

But in both national and individual 
difficulties it is indispensable, in order 
that courage may not waver, that hope 
may not falter — it is indispensable that 
there should be, as already urged, a 
clear intellectual comprehension of the 
full nature of the good thing for which 
battle is waged. The brilliant vision 
of attainable good must be preserved 
undimmed — ever present in sharp and 
radiant outline to the mental eye ; and 
8o its lustre may also fall in a flood of 
searching light on tlio evil which is 



battled against, clearly revealing all its 
hideousness. 

A clear understanding by the people 
at large, of what that is in which the 
value of the Union consists, is only next 
in importance to the Union itself ; since 
the preservation of the Union hangs 
upon the nation's appreciation of its 
value. Then only can we be intensely, 
ardently zealous ; full of courage and 
motive force ; full of hope and determi- 
nation that it shall be preserved at 
whatever cost of life or treasure. But 
without the deep conviction of the 
untold blessings that lie yet undevel- 
oped in the Union and its Constitution, 
without the hearty belief that this 
Union is a gift of God, to be ours only 
while we continue fit to hold it, and to 
be fought for as for life itself (for a 
large, free individual life for each one 
of us is involved in the great life of the 
Union), without this deep, rock-rooted 
conviction in the heart of the nation, 
we shall tend to lukewarmness — to an 
awful indifference as to how this contest 
shall end ; and begin to seek for pres- 
ent peace at any price. We say 'present 
peace, for a permanent peace, short of 
a thorough crushing of the rebellion, is 
simply a sheer imijossibility — a wild 
hallucination. Nor is it a less mad 
fantasy to suppose that the rebellion 
can be effectually crushed without anni- 
hilating slavciy, the sole and supreme 
cause of the rebellion. Such lukewarm- 
ness and untimely peace sentiments, 
widely diffused through the loyal 
States, would be truly alarming. 
Those who feel and talk thus, are like 
blind men on the verge of a fathomless 
abyss ; and should a majority ever be 
animated by such ideas, wc; are gone — 
hopelessly fallen under the dark power, 
never perhaps to rise again in our day 
or generation. But we have no fears 
of such a dismal result ; the nation is 
in the divine hands, and we feel confi- 
dent that all will be right in the end. 

We have presented two reasons why 
the Union is priceless. Still further 



The Value of the Union. 



589 



may this be seen by a glance at the op- 
posite features and tendencies of the 
rebellion ; and by the consideration of 
three or four points of radical diver- 
gence and antagonism between slavery 
and republicanism. 

We set out with the following gen- 
eral statements : 

The less selfish a man Ijccomes — the 
more that he rises out of himself— in 
that degree (other conditions being 
equal) does he seek the society of others 
from disinterested motives, and the 
■wider becomes the circle of his symjia- 
thies. 

On the other hand, the more selfish 
he is — the lower the range of faculties 
•which motive him — in that degree, the 
more exclusive is he — the more docs he 
tend to isolate himself from others, or 
to associate only with those whose 
character or pursuits minister to his 
own gratification. Beasts of prey are 
solitary in their habits — the gentle and 
useful domestic animals are gregarious 
and social. 

Now the same is true of communities. 
The more elevated their character — the 
more that the moral and intellectual 
faculties predominate in a community ; 
or the more virtuous, intelligent, and 
industrious — in short, the more civil- 
ized it is — the closer are the individ- 
uals of that community drawn togeth- 
er among themselves, and the greater 
also is its tendency to unite with other 
communities into a larger society, while 
it preserves, at the same time, all neces- 
sary freedom and individuality. The 
more civilized and humanized a nation 
is, the greater are the tendency and ease 
with which it organizes a diversified, as 
distinguished from a homogeneous 
unity; or, the greater the ease with 
•which it establishes and maintains the 
integrity and freedom of the compo- 
nent parts, of the individuals and com- 
munities of individuals, as indispen- 
sable to the freedom and welfare of the 
whole national body. 

Thus advancing civilization will 
multiply the relations of men with each 



other, of communities with communi- 
ties, of states with states, of nationa 
with nations ; and will also orguuizo 
these relations with a perfection pro- 
portioned to their multiplicity ; and 
thus draw men ever closer in the fra- 
ternal bonds of a common humanity. 

On the other hand, the more a com- 
munity becomes immoral, ignorant, and 
indolent — the lower its aims and mo- 
tive, the less it cultivates the mental 
powers, the fewer industries it prose- 
cutes, and the less diversified are its 
productions — in proportion as it de- 
clines in all these modes, in that de- 
gree does it tend to disintegration, to 
separation and isolation of all its parts, 
and toward the establishment of many 
petty and independent communities ; 
in other words, it tends to lapse into 
barbarism. 

Such a movement is, however, against 
the order of Providence, and thus is an 
evil that corrects itself. Men are hap- 
pier (other conditions being equal) in 
large communities than in small ; and 
when selfishness and ambition have 
broken up a large state into many small 
and independent ones, the same princi- 
ple of selfishness, still operating, keeps 
them in perpetual mutual jealousy and 
collision, until, whether they will or 
not, they are forced into a mass again 
by some strong military despot, or con- 
quered by a superior foreign power, 
and quiet is for a time again restored. 

From these considerations we con- 
clude that civilization, as it advances, is 
but the index of the capacity of human 
beings to form themselves into larger 
and larger nationalities (perhaps ulti- 
mately to result in a federal union of 
all nations), each consisting of numer- 
ous parts, performing distinct func- 
tions; yet so organized harmoniously 
that each part shall preserve all the 
freedom that it requires for its utmost 
development and happiness, and yet 
depend for its own life upon the life 
of the entire national body. 

It may also be concluded that this 



590 



The Value of the Union. 



capacity of men so to organize is just 
in proportion to tlie development of 
the liigher elements and foculties of the 
mind, the religious, moral, social, and 
intellectual, and the diminished influ- 
ence of the lower, animal, and selfish 
nature. 

Consequently, when in such a large 
and harmoniously organized national- 
ity as the American Union, there arises 
a movement which, wdthout the slight- 
est rational or high moral cause, aims 
to break away from this advanced, this 
free and humanizing political organiza- 
tion ; and not only to break away from 
the main body, but also maintains the 
right of the seceding portion itself to 
break up into independent sovereign- 
ties ; then, the conclusion is forced 
upon every impartial mind that the 
spirit which animates such a disrup- 
tive movement is a spirit opposed to 
civilization, since it runs in precisely 
the opposite direction ; as, instead of 
tending to unity, to accord, to a large 
organization with individual freedom, 
it tends to disunity, separation, the 
splitting up of society into many inde- 
pendent sovereign states, or fractions 
of states, certain, absolutely certain to 
clash and war with each other, espe- 
cially with slavery as their woof and 
warp ; and thus bring back the reign 
of barbarism, and the ultimate subjec- 
tion of these warring little sovereignties 
to one or more iron despotisms. 

The inevitable tendency of the rebel- 
lion, if successful, and its doctrine of 
secession ad libitum, is (even without 
slavery — how much more with it!) to 
hurl society to the bottom of the steep 
and rugged declivity uj) which, through 
the long ages, divine Providence, the 
guide of man, has been in the ceaseless 
and finally successful endeavor to raise 
it. The American repuljlic is the high- 
est level, the loftiest table land yet 
reached by man in his political ascent; 
and the forces that would drag him 
from tlience are forces from beneath, 
the animal, selfish, devilish element of 
depraved human nature, which so long 



have held the race in bondage ; and 
which, now that they see their victim 
slipping from their grasp, and rising 
beyond reach into the high region of 
unity, peace, and progress, are moving 
all the powers of darkness for one final 
and successful assault. Will it be suc- 
cessful ? We cannot believe it. 

What is the cause of this wacked, 
heaven-defying, insane movement on 
the part of the South ? The answer ia 
written in flames of light along the sky, 
and in letters of blood upon the breadth 
of the land. Slavery first, slavery mid- 
dle, and slavery last. Accursed slavery ! 
firstborn of the evil one — the lust of 
dominion over others for one's own 
selfish purposes, in its naked, most 
shameless, and undisguised form. Do- 
minion of man over man in other 
modes, such as absolute monarchy, aris- 
tocray, feudalism, ecclesiastical rule — all 
these justify their exactions under the 
plea of the welfare of the subject, or the 
salvation of souls. Slavery has noth- 
ing of the kind behind which to hide 
its monstrosity ; nor does it care to do 
so, except when hard pushed, and then 
it feel)ly pleads the christianization of 
the negro ! A plea at which the com- 
mon sense of mankind and of Christen- 
dom simply laughs. 

Now slavery, we know, is just the re- 
verse of freedom, and hence it is only 
natural to expect that the fruits, tho 
results of slavery, wherever its influence 
extends, would closely partake of the 
nature of their parent and cause. Sla- 
very, then, as the antipodes of freedom, 
mu.st engender in the community that 
harbors and fosters it, habits, senti- 
ments, and modes of life continually 
diverging from, and ever more and 
more antagonistic to, whatever proceeds 
from free institutions. 

Let us look at some of these. There 
are four points of antagonism between 
free and slave institutions that seem to 
stand out more prominently than 
others ; at any rate, we shall not now 
extend our inquiry beyond them. 



The Value of the Union. 



m 



Slavery, then, begets in the ruling 
class : 

1. An excessive spirit of domineering 
and command ; 

2. A contempt of labor ; 

3. A want of diversified industry ; 

4. These three results produce a 
fourth, viz., a division of slave so- 
ciety into a wealthy, all-powerful 
si aveholding aristocracy on the one 
hand ; and an ignorant, impover- 
ished, and more or less degraded 
non - slaveholding chiss on the 
other. 

It is at once seen how slavery devel- 
ops to the utmost, in the master and 
dominant race, a habit of command, of 
self-will, of determination to have one's 
own way at all hazards, of intolerance 
of any contradiction or opposition ; of 
quickness to take ofifence, and to avenge 
and right one's self. The jjossession 
and exercise of almost irresponsible 
power over others tend to destroy in 
the master all power of self-control ; 
foster intolerance of any legal re- 
straint, of any law but one's own will, 
that must either rule or ruin. It is a 
spirit that is cultivated assiduously 
from childhood to youth, and from 
youth to full age, by constant and 
ubiquitous subjection of the negro, 
young and old, to the petty tyranny, 
the whims and caprices of little master 
and miss, and by the exercise of au- 
thority at all times and in all jjlaces by 
the white over the black race. It is a 
spirit that is essential to the slave 
driver ; and when the habit of dictation 
and command to inferiors has grown 
into every fibre of his nature, he cannot 
dismiss it when he deals with his equals, 
whenever his wishes are opposed. 
Hence the violence, the lawlessness, the 
carrying and free use of deadly weap- 
ons, the duels and murders that are so 
rife in the South, and the haughty man- 
ners of so many Southern Congressmen. 
The rebellion is simply the culminatiem 
and breaking forth of this arrogant, 
domineering, slavery-fostered spirit on 



a vast scale. Failing to hold tlic reins 
of the National Government, it must 
needs destroy it. 

Such a temper and disposition is evi- 
dently incompatible with human equal- 
ity and equal rights; and in it wc 
have one of the roots of Southern ill- 
concealed antagonism to free repub- 
lican government. 

2d. The second Southern, or slavcry- 
cngendered element that is antagonistic 
to free institutions, is contempt of la- 
bor. 

Could anything else be expected ? 
Because slaves work, and are compelled 
to it by the overseer's lash, all labor 
necessarily partakes of the disgrace 
which is thus attached to it. It is sur- 
prising how perverted the Southern 
mind is uj^on this point. Because sla- 
very degrades labor, they maintain 
that the converse must also be true, viz., 
that all who labor must unavoidably 
possess the spirit of slaves ; and hence 
they supposed that the North would 
not make a vigorous opposition, be- 
cause all Northerners are addicted to 
labor. 

The truth however is this : Where 
labor is dcsj^ised no conununity can 
flourish as it is capable of doing ; much 
less one with free institutions. We 
might just as well talk of a body with- 
out flesh and bones ; of a house without 
walls or timbers ; of a country without 
land and water, as of free institutions 
without skilled and honorable labor. 
It is the very ground on which they 
stand. 

This then is another source of antag- 
onism between slave and free institu- 
tions. 

3d. A third point, not only of diflcr- 
ence, but also of antagonism between 
slave society and free, consists in the 
permanent contraction or limitation of 
the field of labor in the former, and its 
perpetual expansion and multiplication 
of the branches of industry in the lat- 
ter. Not only does the slave perform 
as little work as he can with safety, but 
besides this, the sphere m which slave 



ait '2 



The Value of the Union. 



labor can be profitably employed is a 
limited one. Agriculture on an exten- 
sive scale, on large plantations, is the 
only one that the slaveholder finds to 
repay him. All articles, or the vast 
majority of them, used by the South, 
that require for their production a 
great number of different and sub- 
divided branches of labor, come from 
the North. 

"We have said that labor, skilled, 
honored, educated labor, is the material 
foundation, the solid ground upon 
which free institutions rest. We now 
further add this undeniable and impor- 
tant truth, viz., that as branches of la- 
bor are multiplied ; as each branch it- 
self is sul)divided and diversified ; as 
new branches and new details are es- 
tablished by the aid of the ever-increas- 
ing light of scientific discovery, and 
the exhaustless fertility of human in- 
ventive genius ; as all these numerous 
industries are more or less connected 
and interlocked ; as this great network 
of ever-multiplying and diversified hu- 
man labors expands its circumference, 
while also filling up its interior meshes, 
in the degree that all this takes place, 
the broader and firmer becomes this 
industrial foundation for free institu- 
tions. 

It is on this broad platform of diver- 
sified and interlocked labors that man 
meets his brother man and equal. The 
variety and diversity of labors adapts 
itself to a like and analogous diversity 
of human characters, tastes, and indus- 
trial aptitudes and caj)acities. And 
the mutual dependence and interlock- 
ing of these multiplied branches of in- 
dustry bring the laborers themselves 
into more numerous, more close, and 
independent relations. i\Ien are first 
drawn together by their mutual wants 
and their social impulses ; but when 
thus brought together, they tend to re- 
main united, not merely by affinity of 
character, l)ut also, and often mainly 
by their having something to do in 
common — by tlieir common labors and 
pursuits. Advancing civilization, since 



it ever brings out and develops more 
and more of man's nature, must, as a 
natural result, ever also multiply his 
wants. These multijilying wants can 
be satisfied for each individual only by 
the diversified activities of multitudes 
of his fellows ; the results of whoso 
united labors, brought to his door, are 
seen in the countless articles that go to 
make up a well-built and well-furnished 
modern dwelling. Labor is thus the 
great social cement; and can any one 
fail to see that it is upon the basis of 
such a diversified and interwoven in- 
dustry that a corresponding multiplici- 
ty, intermingling, and union of human 
relations are established ; and also that 
it is only under free institutions in the 
enjoyment of equal rights, where all 
are equal before the law, and where 
political authority and order emanate 
from the people themselves, that labor 
itself can be free ; and not only free, 
but ennobled, and at full liberty to ex- 
pand itself broadly and widely in all 
departments, without any conceivable 
limits ? "While at the same time, by the 
interlacing of its countless details, it 
cements the laborers, the resjjective 
communities, the entire nation into a 
noble brotherhood of useful workers. 

"We have yet to learn the elevating, 
refining power of labor, when organ- 
ized as it can, and assuredly will be. 
At present we have no adequate con- 
ception of this influence. It is solely 
for the sake of labor, for the sake of 
human activity, that it may fill as many 
and as wide and deep channels as pos- 
sible, and thus permit man's varied 
life and cajjacities to flow freely forth, 
and expand to the utmost ; it is solely 
for this end that all government is in- 
stituted ; and under a free, popular 
government, under the guidance of re- 
ligion and science, labor is destined to 
reach a degree of development and a 
perfection of organization, and to exert 
a reactive influence in cnnoljling hu- 
man character that shall surpass tho 
farthest stretch of our present imagin- 
ings. Our rare political organization ia 



The Value of the Union. 



i93 



but the coarse, bold outlines — the rug- 
ged trunk and branches of tlie great 
tree of lil)erty. Out of this will grow 
the delicate and luxuriant foliage of a 
varied, beautiful, scientific, and digni- 
fied industry and social life. 

This is the glorious, towering, ex- 
panding structure, which the insane 
rebellion, the dark slave power, is rag- 
ing to destroy ! to tear it, brancli by 
branch, to pieces, and scatter the ruins 
to the four winds, in order to set up, 
what ? — in its place. A foul, decaying 
object — a slave oligarchy, which, do 
what it will, is, at each decennial cen- 
sus, seen to fall steadily farther and far- 
ther into the rear even of the most lag- 
gard of the Free States, in all that goes 
to make up our American civilization.* 
And all this because it sees that the life 
of the republic is the death of slavery, 
and free labor the eternal enemy of slave. 

This difference in the conditions of 
labor, then, forms the third point of 
antagonism between free and slave in- 
stitutions. 

It is an antagonism that is ever on 
the increase — ever intensifying, and ut- 
terly irremediable in any conceivable 
way or mode. Much as the nation 
longs for peace, this is utterly hopeless, 
let it do what it will — compromise, try 
arbitration, mediation — nothing can 
bring lastmg peace but the death of 
slavery. Freedom may be crushed for 
a season, but as it is the breath of God 
himself, it will live and struggle on 
from year to year, and from age to age, 
and give the world no rest until it has 
vanquished all opposition, and asserted 
its divine right to be supreme. 

If slave society, therefore, thus neces- 
sarily diverges ever farther and farther 
from the conditions which characterize, 
and those which result from the opera- 
tions of free institutions, such society 
must of course be fast on its way to a 
monarchical, or even an absolute and 
despotic government. The whites of 
the South even now may be considered 

* See Hon. R. J. Walebb's invaluable papers 
on 'The Union,' in Continental Monthly. 



as separated into two distinct classes — 
the governing and the governed. The 
slaveholders are virtually the governing 
class, through their .superior wealth, 
education, and inllucnre ; and the non- 
slaveholders are as virtually the subject 
class, since slavery, being the great, 
paramc^unt, leading interest, overtop- 
ping and overshadowing all things else, 
tinging every other social element with 
its own sombre hue, ia fatal to any 
movement adverse to it on the part of 
the non-slaveholder. Everything must 
drift in the whirl of its i)owerfuI eddy, 
a terrible maelstrom, into which the 
North was fast floating, when the thun- 
der of the Fort Sumter bombardment 
awoke it just in time to see its awful 
peril and strike out, with God's helj), 
into the free waters once more. 

From these considerations, can wc be 
surprised at the rumors that now and 
then come from the South, of incipient 
movements toward a monarchical gov- 
ernment ? Not at all. Should the re- 
bellion succeed — a supposition which 
is, of course, not to be harbored for a 
moment — but in such an improbable 
contingency there can be hardly a rea- 
sonable doubt that a monarchy would 
be the result. Not probably at first. 
The individual States would like to 
amuse themselves awhile with the 
game of secession, and the joys of inde- 
pendent sovereignty. State rights, etc., 
as Georgia has already begun to do, 
in nullifying the conscription law on 
their bogus congress. But eventually 
their mutual jealousies, their ' quick 
sense of honor,' their contentious and 
intestine wars (and nothing else can rea- 
sonably be looked for) will bring them 
under an absolute monarchy, more or 
less arbitrary, or under the yoke of 
some foreign power. 

The antagonism between free and 
slave institutions, which we have in- 
ferred, from a glance at the peculiar 
workings of each, finds its complete 
confirmation in certain statements made 



594 



The Value of the Union. 



by JMr. Calhoun, some twenty years 
ago, which were to this eflfcct, viz. : 

' Democracy in the North is engen- 
dering social anarchy ; it is tending to 
the loosening of the bonds of society. 
Society is not governed by the will of a 
molj, but by education and talent. 
Therefore the South, resting on slavery 
as a stable foundation, is a principle of 
authority : it nmst restrain the North ; 
must resist the anarchical influence of 
the North ; must counterbalance the 
dissolving influence of the North. Ue 
upheld slavery because it was a bul- 
wark to counterbalance the dissolving 
democracy of the North ; that the dis- 
solving doctrines of democracy took 
their rise in England, passed into 
France, and caused the French Revolu- 
tion ; that they have been carried out 
in the democracy of the North, and 
will there ultimate in revolution, an- 
arcliy, and dissolution.' (Taken from 
Horace Greeley, in Independent of De- 
cember 25th, 18t52.) 

These are Mr. Calhoun's own words, 
and he will probably be allowed to be 
a fair exponent of Southern sentiment : 
we may gather from these utterances 
how the free republicanism of the North 
is regarded by the slave oligarchy. 

We cannot forbear adding another 
statement of Mr. Calhoun, made to 
Commodore Stuart, as far back as 1812, 
in a private conversation at Washing- 
ton, which was in substance as follows, 
viz. : That the South, on account of 
slavery, found it necessary to ally her- 
self with one of the political parties; 
but that if ever events should so turn 
out as to break this alliance, or cause 
that the South could not control the 
Government, that then it would break 
it up. 

Comment upon this is unnecessary. 
Let no loyal man forget these expres- 
sions ; they reveal the egg from whence, 
after fifty years' incubation, this rebel- 
lion has been hatched. 

But our theme, ' The Value of the 
Union,' contiimally expands before us; 
nevertheless we nmst bring our article 
to a close. We do so with the follow- 
ing remarks : 

An individual is truly free, not in 



the degree only in which he governs 
himself, but in the degree that he gov- 
erns himself according to the central 
truth and right of things, or according 
to the loftiness of the standard by 
which he regulates his conduct. 

It is by the possession of truth, and 
by obedience to what that truth teaches, 
that a man rises out of evil and error, 
and out of bondage thereto. 

The i)ossession of truth constitutes 
intelligence. 

But intelligence is worse than useless 
without obedience to its highest re- 
quirements, which is virtue. 

Virtue, or morality, in its turn (or 
decent exterior conduct), is nothing 
without that which constitutes the 
soul's topmost and central faculty, viz., 
the religious sentiment, or that which 
links the soul to God, the centre of all 
things. As the parts of any organism, 
as we have seen, fall into confusion and 
discord when the central bond is want- 
ing; so do the powers of the soul, 
when it closes itself by evil doing 
against the entrance of the beams of 
life and light that unceasingly flow 
upon it from God, the spiritual sun 
and centre of the universe. 

Now, as individuals make up the 
nation, this wall be free, and the Union 
valued and preserved, in the degree 
that each individual is intelligent, vir- 
tuous, and religious. 

Upon those, then, who educate the 
individual, those to whom the infant, 
the child, the youth, is entrusted, to 
mould and imbue at the most pliant 
and receptive period of life — on those, 
whose office it is to form the young 
mind into the love and practice of all 
things good and true, and an abhor- 
rence of their opposites; upon these, the 
parents, the teachers, and the pastors of 
the land ; upon these, when this hurri- 
cane of civil war shall have passed away, 
do the preservation of this Union and 
the hopes of mankind more than ever 
depend. Upon home education and 
influence ; on the schools and on the 
churches : on these three forces centred 



The. Valne of th. 



(J; 



596 



upou, Interwoven, and vitalized by true republic. May those who wield them 

Christian doetrine, as revealed in the live and act with an ever more vivid 

Sacred Scriptures or inspired Word of and growing consciousncHS of tlieir 

God, rest the destbnes of the American great responsibility. 




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